Tuesday, February 26, 2008

As I journey towards my grading...

I did a measurement of my waist this morning... OMG! I am like 36" already! I know this may not seem like much to most people, but it matters the living crap out of me.

Coming from a start of 44" I have come full circle (pardon the pun) in reaching my 36", same waistline when I was fighting fit 14 years ago. My height has not changed one single bit though...still the measly 168cm... LOL

Weight wise also ... from a high of 126KG in 1988, to an all time low of 68KG when I was in the army (a story I will tell in my subsequent blogs...stay tuned), I was 86KG..just nice when I was active in my club. Right now, as I am typing this, I am 87KG... 1KG of fat left to go...

Pammy says I have more muscles instead of fats now, she will be a good one to comment since she saw me in both my best times and worst... So, logically I weight more now, since I still weigh in at 87KG, does that mean I am ACTUALLY lighter than before already!!?? *woot That is one inspirational highlight of current status.

The very notion of being lighter and slimmer means fitter is not true anymore. Let me tell you why. When I first lost weight rapidly due to exercise (Ketosis inducing) AND diet (Modified Atkins), I was so elated at my weight loss that I was happily training hard for my karate.

After a while I started to realised, er, I am fluffing my punches and flicking my kicks... yes you heard right, flick. I cannot put any power behind my strikes... damn frust I tell you.

Later I read that the rapid lost in weight was a combination of fat, protein and muscle mass loss. I was thinking OMG OMG OMG...major mistake, I did not factor in muscle loss... But then again, it worked out well in the end. The loss was a good reset in my system, everything broke down so I can rebuild again. and rebuild I did... LOL

It wasn't easy, all the running, weights, stretching, training... But I had one thing going for me...kata.

Karate kata was meant to be a cheoreographed movements against imaginary attacks, but it also pinpoints weaknesses in our own training, such as weak stance, or poor concentration. Using that as a guage I improved myself.

Oh yes, weight loss / fitness / dieting, we also have to do SWOT analysis. Our strengths, meaning what we are good at, so we can do more or a variety of the same, our weaknesses, so we can watch out for the pitfalls, like sweet tooth for diet, or weak knees for exercise, etc etc. then we can make use of opportunities that present itself to enhance our training or lifestyle change. Threats are equally identified and avoided like SIOW!!!!! DUN GO TO BUFFET IF YOU CANNOT TAKE THE TEMPTATION... *in a small voice: i am a very weak willed person...*

I am happily continuing my diet after a break known as Carb break.. (That will be updated on a blog with my past records on an excel sheet... LOL), it is wokring for me, so I should continue, as it is for Pammy. However, I would advise all those who like to try this, "Follow you own footsteps", because each and everyone of us have different body types, different blood types, different characters, and on and on... Idea is that we must find out what works for us, there are merits in each and every type of dieting program, because it OBVIOUSLY worked for the founder/creator... :)

Anyway, I will be popping down to SKA in a while to practise kata. I calculated that if I wanted to practise Seipai kata 50 times, I would have to do 10 repetitions in an hour, 5 hours straight. That means 6 minutes per kata inclusive breaks... phew... wish me luck... I realy admire the world champions, they do this like 1000 times is like...wow! NOT IN A DAY LAR..... over a period of time lar.. LOL

Till my next post.. ~out

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